Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-08-04
THE BLINDNESS OF POLICE OFF,
GALS.

Says g thoughtful Eastern contemporary
The demand for moral teaching and the
proposition to educate men and lift them
above crime are well enough, and surely
have their places in social economy, but
the iron hand of the law has an Office to
fill thu; nothing else can"
The officials of the city of Sacramento,
without whose cooperation this same "iron
hand can throttle no vice, should reflect
upon the truth that their non-performance
absolutely amounts to conservation of, and
participation in crime, and puts the whole
community in the attitude of the law
breake-. When officials refuse TO remove
the evil influences as the law bids them
to dc, and which they may with ease ac-
complish, they contribute to the leading
of youths and men into criminal paths and
into general contempt for all laws. As
the Chicago Current well remarks:
There is not a foot of land in all this country
in which crime could at all exist were the ordi-
nances and statutes properly enforced, but it is
strangely true that where the facilities for the
enforcement of law seem the best and most
complete there, as general thing, crime Most
abounds The fault is not ofthe law but of the
administration of it. Our cities are full OF crime
of all grades. Gambling dens, halls of vice. and
the resorts of all grades of wickedness and i'm
morality flourish in the broad light of day and
with the full knowledge of those whose sworn
duty /. is 10 enforce the statutes against them
The police walk their beats serenely in hollow
mockery OF men. and there is not single Off
cial ignorant of these dens of wickedness and
schools tor criminals. From these graduate the
rascGls who shock society with the sensational
developments of their crimes In these are
born anG reared the thief conspirator and muir
derer Youth is lured to the halls of vice and
age is seGred with crime. This is the source of
the fountain that poisons every vale This is
the sac beginning of the disastrous end. Here
are the roots of the disease that wastes the man
hood Of society and debilitates the energies and
activities Of government To this source can be
traced the origin of the Yiolators of law, the
oriber the criminal banker and the I" booder"
Fine spun theories, high moral grounds
and the whole code of ethics will fail TO reach
the evils which the simple, practical admins
.ratior {. Jaw will destroy.
No man will venture TO say that the
assertion of the law against the "boodlers''
and thieves of New York and Chicago
has not contributed to respect for it, and
a better state of things generally, notably
among the officials themselves, whose con-
sciousness of duty well performed makes
them stronger officers, more vigilant senti-
nels upon the social walls and better citi-
zens. But if, as in many communities, the
contemptuous violation of the law, the UNI
disguised breach of the plainest of crim-
nal statutes is not checked by the officers
whose duty it is; if they openly and un
blushingly consent to the non-observance
OF the criminal laws, is there any one who
will venture to declare that the influence
OF such inactivity and disregard of obliga-
lion has not a deplorable influence upon
society, and actually invites to breaches of
the law generally and the commission of
crime along the whole gamut Of misde-
neanors and felonies?
To apply this preaching let single in
stubborn refusal of officials to take cogniz-
anee Of il, in our own city, be chosen from
among several to which attention will be
called in order. In that case the plainest
written law upon the statute book, the
most simply worded prohibition of the
Penal Code, is openly. fagrantly violated
every hour of every day of the year, and
with the most contemptuors disregard of
law, officers and Courts that is possible to
imagine. Though our police officers from
Chief 10 roundsmen and our Police Commits
sioners, Trustees and Magistrates walk the
streets with open eyes, they are stricken
with the strangest blindness to the offense
10 which We refer.
How do these gentlemen square their
consciences with their oaths to support and
enforce the laws of the State, when every
man OF them knows that the statute for
bidding the advertising of lotteries in any
manner whatever, and prohibiting the sale
of tickets of lottery schemes, is undis-
guisedly violated daily in the capital city
Of the State? What answer have these
sworn officials to make TO the taken petty
larceny thief who asks why the law Is in
voked against him and ignored as to graver
crime by the seller of lottery tickets? In
the name of common decency, what re
Spouse can these officials make to their
amazed and bewildered sons who ask why
the miserable vagrant is marched to the
bar OF Justice in his rags, while the broad
clothed criminal is unmolested who hangs
out his advertisements of foreign and
home lotteries in defiance of the statute.
and cries his lottery wares over his counter
with contemptuous disregard of the Con-
stitution and the laws?
Stand up, gentlemen, and answer, what
birds you? What salve is applied to
your conscience to ease the burden of your
oaths? Who gives you the rightto license
these MEASUREMENTS TO commit crime
By what authority do you permit the
commission of these oiienses against the
law? How is il that you know nothing of
what everyone else knows so much? BY